Ibn Hibat Allah
- Died
- 516 AH
- Born in
- Tripoli, Levant
Ibn Hibat Allah (462–518 AH / 1069–1124 CE) was an Arab genealogist, poet, calligrapher, and judge from Tripoli who served under the Fatimid vizierate in Cairo, best known for compiling the literary miscellany al-Majmu al-Lafif (The Assorted Anthology) .
Lineage and Early Life
His full name was Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Hibat Allah ibn Ali al-Husayni al-Aftasi, bearing the honorifics al-Zaki and Amin al-Dawla, and tracing his lineage back to the Prophet's grandson al-Husayn ibn Ali . He was born in Tripoli in the Levant in 462 AH . In Tripoli, he studied genealogy under the Alid genealogist Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Balqata and Arabic language under al-Tulaytili . He also trained in Arabic calligraphy following the script style of Ibn Muqla . His poetic output first appeared in 485 AH, when he composed panegyric verses in Tripoli for Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Imad and other notables .
Career in Cairo and Death
After being detained for a period in Tripoli by its ruler Fakhr al-Dawla Abu Ali Ammar ibn Muhammad ibn Ammar, Ibn Hibat Allah was released and left the city . He arrived in Cairo in 501 AH, where he recited panegyrics for the Fatimid vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah . He briefly returned to Tripoli before permanently settling in Cairo with his family in 503 AH, entering al-Afdal's close service .
In Egypt, Ibn Hibat Allah was appointed to the judiciary over the province of al-Gharbiyya . Following his dismissal from that post, al-Afdal appointed him as the inaugural preacher for the newly constructed Mosque of the Elephants (Jami al-Fila) on the heights overlooking Birkat al-Habash . At the inaugural Friday prayer—attended by state figures including the scribes Ibn al-Sayrafi and his son Mukhtass al-Dawla Abu al-Majd, as well as the grammarian Ibn Barakat—Ibn Hibat Allah mounted the minbar, uttered the opening words, and suddenly became tongue-tied . Overcome by a sudden fever, he stepped down from the pulpit while the mosque's custodian led the congregation in prayer . He was taken to his residence, where he remained ill until he died; his death is recorded in 518 AH, while other sources place it after 515 AH .
Literary Contributions
Ibn Hibat Allah's principal surviving work is al-Majmu al-Lafif, an extensive literary anthology and cultural miscellany (kunnash) . The work gathers excerpts from a wide variety of subjects without a strict topical structure, containing historical reports, sermons, hadiths, letters, poetic selections, and linguistic rarities ranging from concise aphorisms to multi-page treatises .
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List of Works
al-Majmu‘ al-Lafif (The Assorted Anthology) is an Arabic literary and cultural miscellany that gathers a wide range of rarities, literary excerpts, historical anecdotes, and linguistic and religious benefits. Arranged without a strict thematic schema, it presents items from diverse disciplines in an unsystematic order, ranging from single-line aphorisms to multi-page treatises, sermons, and travel narratives.